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Homan Square hearing listens to testimony on Chicago police practices
Source: The Guardian
Homan Square hearing listens to testimony on Chicago police practices
Zach Stafford in Chicago
Wednesday 16 December 2015 00.45 GMT
Detainees, legal advocates and activists testified on Tuesday at the first public hearing to examine Homan Square, the Chicago police interrogation facility exposed by the Guardian and falling under renewed scrutiny amid intense examination of the city’s law enforcement.
As protests continue to grip Chicago following the release of video footage and a landmark investigation by the US Justice Department, police practices at the warehouse received a rare political convening at City Hall, which has all but dismissed public comment – despite an ongoing Guardian investigation revealing at least 7,000 people held off the books there.
“It’s fallen to us to shine a light on dark places,” said the Cook County commissioner, Richard Boykin, who convened the group under the board’s human relations commission. “Homan Square is such a place.”
Boykin called for the extended inquiry hours after the city’s police chief was fired by the mayor this month, following protests in the wake of details about the death of a black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer. Less than one week later, the nation’s top law enforcement agency said it had begun an inquiry into the patterns and practices of the city’s notoriously brutal police.
“The Justice Department’s investigation must take into account those systemic issues in the Chicago police department that go back decades,” Boykin said on Tuesday. “Homan Square is one of those systemic issues.”
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Zach Stafford in Chicago
Wednesday 16 December 2015 00.45 GMT
Detainees, legal advocates and activists testified on Tuesday at the first public hearing to examine Homan Square, the Chicago police interrogation facility exposed by the Guardian and falling under renewed scrutiny amid intense examination of the city’s law enforcement.
As protests continue to grip Chicago following the release of video footage and a landmark investigation by the US Justice Department, police practices at the warehouse received a rare political convening at City Hall, which has all but dismissed public comment – despite an ongoing Guardian investigation revealing at least 7,000 people held off the books there.
“It’s fallen to us to shine a light on dark places,” said the Cook County commissioner, Richard Boykin, who convened the group under the board’s human relations commission. “Homan Square is such a place.”
Boykin called for the extended inquiry hours after the city’s police chief was fired by the mayor this month, following protests in the wake of details about the death of a black teenager shot 16 times by a white police officer. Less than one week later, the nation’s top law enforcement agency said it had begun an inquiry into the patterns and practices of the city’s notoriously brutal police.
“The Justice Department’s investigation must take into account those systemic issues in the Chicago police department that go back decades,” Boykin said on Tuesday. “Homan Square is one of those systemic issues.”
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/15/homan-square-testimony-chicago-police-practices